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21 Oct 2013

Bartlett Sher

Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Two Boys, the Nico Muhly-Craig Lucas opera that had its world premiere in 2011 at the English National Opera, makes its American premiere Oct. 21 at the Met. Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher directs the opera inspired by true events.

Sher (The Light in the Piazza, South Pacific, Golden Boy) staged the original London production and returns for the Met engagement that is performed Oct. 21, 25 and 30; and Nov. 2, 6, 9 and 14. The Oct. 21 and Nov. 6 and 14 performances will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74.

At 32 years old, Muhly is the youngest composer ever commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Muhly also provided the haunting original score to the acclaimed Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie. His opera Dark Sisters premiered in New York in fall 2012.

Lucas is the Tony-nominated book writer of The Light in the Piazza and playwright of Prelude to a Kiss. He is also at work on a new stage adaptation of An American in Paris with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.

According to the Met, "Two Boys, set in an English industrial city in 2001, combines two story elements rarely seen on the operatic stage: a police procedural, in which a detective follows clues to unravel the truth behind an act of senseless violence, and a dramatization of the mysterious and lonely lives of those who inhabit the dark corners of the Internet."

The cast of Two Boys features Alice Coote as Detective Inspector Anne Strawson and Paul Appleby as Brian, the 16-year-old boy at the center of her investigations. English tenor Nicky Spence, who originated the role of Brian at the ENO, will make his Met debut in the role Nov. 14.

The cast also includes Jennifer Zetlan as Rebecca, Caitlin Lynch as Cynthia, Sandra Piques Eddy as Fiona, Judith Forst as Anne's Mum, Christopher Bolduc as Jake and Keith Miller as Peter.